Re: carpet cleaning

<HTML>Laurent:

You raise an interesting question that the FAA has been ignoring for a long time. Once interior materials are installed on an aircraft there is no way to verify that 5 years down the road they still meet flammability requirements of 23.853 & 25.853. The only way to verify this would be to cut a sample of your seat out, or carpet, etc.. and have it burn tested, obviously this would not work. There currently is not any way one can prove that the interior materials installed on their aircraft still meet the original flammability requirements.

Cleaning or shampooing materials treated with a saturant type fire retardant may inhibit the fire retardancy characteristics. However, items treated with a latex backing type fire retardant will have a permanent durable fire retardancy. Most fire retardants are non-corrosive, but manufacturers will give no guarantees that corrosion will not occur. Manufacturers also void there warranties once the material is cut and installed on the aircraft. That's right, there liability ends once the material is cut and installed on an aircraft. Their certification for flammability is only for the raw material.

The only advice I can give you is to call the manufacturer of the carpet and ask for their cleaning instructions. If it is wool carpet, do not apply stain repellents which contain silicone, because they tend to accelerate carpet soiling. Also, spots on wool carpets can be removed by a detergent solution of clear dish washing liquid or powder(containing no bleaches or strong alkalies) with warm water (not hot); or vinegar solution- 1/3 cup of white vinegar with 2/3 cup of water.

Re: carpet cleaning

<HTML>I cleaned the carpet in my C-182 shortly after I bought it, in '86. I pulled it out, layed it out in my driveway and used my Bissle Carpet Steamer...I let it dry in the sun...it looked great...when I put it back in the plane....It was almost three inches too short!! I dont think I'd do that again, unless I tacked the carpet down to something till it dried...

Since then, I've found Quick 'n Brite to be very effective on a wide assortment of cleaning problems.</HTML>